February–March
25,000 men (fewer than 12,000 are armed troops; the rest are unarmed logistical troops)
April
52,000 men (25,000 are armed troops) 15,000 men | Date 1925 | |
 | ||
Results Decisive Turkish victory,, Revolt suppressed Similar Dersim rebellion, Ararat rebellion, Koçgiri rebellion, Turkish War of Independence, Battle of Sakarya | ||
The Sheikh Said Rebellion (Kurdish: Serhildana Seîdê Pîran, Turkish: Şeyh Said İsyanı) or Genç Incident (Kurdish: Genç Hâdisesi) was a Kurdish rebellion aimed at reviving the Islamic caliphate. It used elements of Kurdish nationalism to recruit. It was led by Sheikh Said and a group of former Ottoman soldiers also known as "Hamidiye". The rebellion was carried out by two Kurdish sub-groups, the Zaza and the Kurmanj.
Contents
Background
The Azadî was dominated by officers from the former Hamidiye, a Kurdish tribal militia established under the Ottoman Empire to deal with the Armenians and sometimes even to keep the Kizilbash under control. According to various historias the main reason the revolt took place was that various elements of Turkish society were unhappy with Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's abolition of the Islamic Caliphate system. While it can be considered we must understand that Britain was a sworn enemy of both the Islamic Caliphate and the Turks. According to British intelligence reports, the Azadî officers had eleven grievances. Apart from inevitable Kurdish cultural demands and complaints of Turkish maltreatment, this list also detailed fears of imminent mass deportations of Kurds. They also registered annoyance that the name Kurdistan did not appear on maps, at restrictions on the Kurdish language and on Kurdish education and objections to alleged Turkish economic exploitation of Kurdish areas, at the expense of Kurds.
It was Sheikh Said who convinced Hamidiye commanders to support a fight for the return of Islamic Caliphate system.
Certain among you have taken as a pretext for revolt the abuse by the governmental administration, some others have invoked the defence of the Caliphate,.
Some claim British assistance was sought realizing that Kurdistan could not stand alone.
Events
Sheikh Said appealed to all Muslims of Turkey to join in the rebellion being planned. The tribes which actually participated were mostly Zazas. However the Xormak and Herkî, two Zaza-Qizilbash tribes were the most active and effective opponents of this rebellion. The participation from Kurds (Kurmanchs) was allegedly almost non-existent except a handful of Hamidiye leaders. Mindful of the depredations of the Hamidiye against them (especially the Hamidiye commanded by Xalid Beg Cîbran), other Alevi tribes also refused to join the rebellion.
In one of the bigger engagements, in the night of 6–7 March, the forces of Sheikh Said laid siege to the city of Diyarbakır with 5,000-10,000 men. The Muslim Revivalists attacked the city at all four gates simultaneously. All of their attacks were repelled by the numerically inferior Turkish garrison, with the use of machine gun fire and mortar grenades. When the rebels retreated the next morning, the area around the city was full of dead bodies. When a second wave of attacks failed, the siege was finally lifted on 11 March.
By the end of March, most of the major battles of the Sheikh Said rebellion were over. The rebels were unable to penetrate beyond Hınıs, ironically this was one of the two major areas where Sheikh Said was well known and he enjoyed considerable influence there (he had a tekke in Hınıs). This failure excluded the possibility of extending the rebellion.
The main part of the uprising was over by the end of March, as the Turkish authorities, according to Martin van Bruinessen, crushed the rebellion with continual aerial bombardments and a massive concentration of forces.
During this rebellion, the Turkish government used its airplanes for bombing raids in Palu-Bingöl area. In the course of this operation, the airfield near Elâzığ road was used.
However, according to the British Air Ministry there are few reports on the use of Turkish airplanes in suppressing the Sheikh Said rebellion. The reports originate from the British Air Command at Mosul, which was in charge of intelligence for all of Iraq.
At the beginning of the rebellion the Turks had one squadron (filo) consisting of 7 airplanes. Of these only 2 were serviceable. Later four more arrived. The Turkish Air Force deployed a total of 11 airplanes against the rebellion, however, only 6 were serviceable.
Result
Sheikh Said was captured around 1925 and executed by hanging. This was the last serious attempt for Kurds to revive the Caliphate system. The rebellion diminished the negotiating power of Turkey, and the Ottoman province of Mosul was assigned to the British Mandate of Mesopotamia.
After the failed rebellion, thousands of Kurds fled their homes in southeastern Turkey to Syria, where they settled and were granted citizenship by the French mandate authorities.
In the Fall of 1927, Sheikh Abdurrahman (brother of Sheikh Said) began a series of revenge attacks on Turkish garrisons in Palu and Malatya.